It was an impossible situation for Moses. The two people – Aaron and Miriam – he’d depended on and needed the most in leading the Israelites from Egypt to Canaan, had both turned on him. They even felt justified in turning on him too, because in their eyes Moses hadn’t come up to their expectations and standards of proper behaviour.
Their accusations, however, sounded more like trumped up charges against Moses to justify toppling him from leadership and the two of them taking over. Which must’ve really rocked Moses back on his heels, not only because of his brother’s and sister’s blatant arrogance, but also in the shattering of their trust in him.
And when it’s family – emotions can overheat easily and quickly. But there’s no record of that happening to Moses in Numbers 12. Instead, verse 3 speaks only of him being “the most humble person on the earth,” and in verse 4 of Yahweh immediately (and angrily, verse 9) getting involved and coming to Moses’ defence.
So this becomes personal to Yahweh, and in no uncertain terms he explains to Aaron and Miriam why it’s personal: it’s because “my servant Moses is faithful in all my house” (7). He’s done everything I’ve asked him to do, and “with him I speak face to face,” so he knows me just like I know him. I trust him and he trusts me, so why on earth did you dare to speak against him (8)?
Yahweh was so angry at how they were treating Moses – who hadn’t fired a shot in return too – that on Miriam, who seems to have been the main instigator, Yahweh inflicted the dreaded leprosy (10). But that’s what broke through Aaron’s arrogance, because he turned to Moses and begged him in verse 11, “Please don’t hold against us the sin we have so foolishly committed.” How fortunate it was, then, that Moses was a humble man, because his first reaction was to “cry out to the Lord, ‘O God, please heal her’” (13), not tell Aaron that Miriam deserved leprosy for her stinking attitude, so don’t come crying to him for help.
And again it was Moses’ humble spirit that Yahweh honoured, because after isolating Miriam from the camp for seven days he allowed her back (14-15), healed and repentant. Thanks to Moses’ humility, then, the blatant arrogance of his brother and sister had been turned into humility too. Such was the importance of humility to Yahweh, so in other situations, “Why did God allow Moses to challenge him?”….(next blog)
